The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-12-04
A Suggestion to a Fledgeling.

The Press, the new Republican paper that
was started in New York city on last Thurs
| day, and which has for its chief objects the
| booming of the doctrine of protection and the
| destruction of the Prohibition party, makes
the failure OF the Prohbitonists to retain
control in Atlanta the text for a le ding ar.
| ticle against prohibition, and as its purpose
is to make its readers believe that pro-
hibtion is losing its grip, as it were,
it quite naturally gives coloring to the
! facts which, to those who are well informed
! respecting the prohibition movement in the
South, appears to be not entirely in har-
nlony with the truth. The Press says that
after the result in Atlanta it is hardly prob
able that prohibition will be much heard of
again in the South as practical po-
litical issue As a matter of fact,
prohibition has always been treated
i'll the South as a moral, rather than a po-
litical ISSUE There is no distinctive Prohibi-
tion party in the South. In the great prohi-
bition contest in Texas, in August last, the
Prohibtionists were not regarded as a po-
litical party. They were made up of DEM
ocrats and Republicans. This is also true
with respect to the prohibition contest in Ten
nessee, which occurred few weeks after that
in Texas. In this State and Florida, in
Alabama and Louisiana, the Prohibitionists
| aim at one thing, and that is the suppress
sion of the liquor traffic They are not
seeking offices nor trying to get control of
the State, county or municipal govern
ments. On political questions they continue
to act with their respective political
parties.
The result of the Atlanta election does
! not show that prohibition has received
check in the South. In the first place the
| condition Of public sentiment in Atlanta on
prohibition is no indication of the condition
of public sentiment on that question in
other parts Of the South, and, in the second
place, an analysis of the vote in Atlanta
will probably show that the number of
the better element in that city which
voted for prohibition last week was larger
than it was two years ago. The truth is
that prohibition there was defeated by the
colored vote. The Prohibitionists were
more successful in influencing that vote than
the Prohibitionists were. The most intel
ligent OF the colored people, as a rule, voted
for prohibition, but their number is small.
Prohibition In the South does not show
any loss of vitality. 1t may be a long time
before it will be successful in the larger
cities, but it is very rapidly gaining control
of all the territory outside of the cities. In
the counties in this State in which it has a
firm foothold it will remain. It's good
effects are too apparent and too highly APP
preciated for it to lose its hold upon the
people.
The Press, however, is not opposed to pro-
hibition, but to Prohibition party If
prohibition in the North were dealt with
outside of politics, as it is in the South, the
Press would have nothing to say against it,
The Prohibition party, however, threatens
to destroy the Republican party, and hence
the Press is training its guns upon it. But
the more the Prohibition party is attacked
the stronger it seems to become. The Press
intimates that it is losing ground. The
votes it cast in the last election in
New York do not indicate anything of that
kind. Both in Ohio and New York the
Prohibition vote has steadily increased, and
next year it will be plenty large enough in
New York to insure Democratic majority
in that State, and, consequently, the election
of a Democratic President. If the Press
wants to secure readers and retain their con-
fidence it ought to be careful to be candid
and correct.